BBT308 ASSIGNMENT GROUP MONTANE

1. Rainforest Biome and its Characteristics
Group’s name : Montane
Group members: 1. Mohamad Hafiz Bin Hashim (129952)
2. Zhorifah Hafzan Binti Roslan (130010)
3. Lim Yu Yan (130192)
4. Christeena a/p A Nan (129935)
5. Nuramira Binti Ahmad Tarmizi (129977)

2. Definition of Rainforest
• A forest that growing in regions with more than 2000 mm (6.5 feet) of rainfall per year.
• It occur between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° N and 23.5° S).
• It usually tall, densely growing, broad-leaves evergreen trees.

3. Characteristic of Rainforest
• There are several characteristics that rainforest have:
 Precipitation
 Climate
 Canopy structure
 Diversity of species
 Complex symbiotic relationships

4. • Precipitation
• Rainforests have average annual rainfall more than 2000 mm.
• Constant cloud cover is enough to keep the air moist and prevent plants from
drying out.
• Evenly rainfall and warm keeping the leaves all year and never dropping the leaves
in any one season.

5. • Climate
• Lies in the "tropics“, between the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer.
• In this region, sunlight strikes Earth at roughly a 90-degree angle resulting in
intense solar energy.
• This intensity is due to the consistent day length on the equator which is 12 hours
a day.
• It only have TWO seasons which are “dry” and “wet”.

6. • Canopy Structure
• Rainforests feature a distinct canopy structure of FOUR main levels:
 Emergent (40 meter and above)
 Canopy (30-40 meter)
 Understory (less than 12 meter)
 Forest floor
• Each level has its own organisms that occupied with their specific niche.

7.  Diversity of Species
• Areas of extremely high biodiversity compared to other ecosystems.
• About 1.8 millions species have been classified.
• Example, about 100000 of insects and 40000 of plants are found in Amazon.
• Plants have flower with variety of colours and shapes to attract pollinator.

8. • Complex Symbiotic Relationship
• Symbiotic interactions are those in which two or more species interact very
closely.
• Associations may be beneficial or negative to one or the other party, or neutral.
 Example:
• Ants and Macaranga trees
• Ants and epiphytes
• Termites and pitcher plants
• Microbes such as Mycorrhizae

9. Importance (roles & function) of trees
• Trees help in cleaning the air by absorbing odors and pollutant gases and filter
particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark
• Trees help prevent water pollution by reduce runoff by breaking rainfall thus allowing
water to flow down the trunk and into the ground
• Trees help prevent soil erosion by slowing down the runoff and hold the soil in place
• Trees also is a habitat for various type of animals and insects.
• Trees take in carbon dioxide and release out oxygen gases which is necessary and
important for life.

10. • Trees cool the streets and city by shading,breaking up urban
‘heat island’ and releasing water vapour into the air through
their leaves.
• Other than providing benefits in nature side,trees also create
an economic opportunities which can increase income of
people.

11. Importance (roles & function) of forest
• Forests are the key source of quality air
• A single mature, leafy tree is estimated to produce a day’s supply of oxygen for
two to ten people
• Forest can tackle daunting tasks like curbing a city’s ‘’heat island’’ effect or
regulating regional temperatures
• Tree roots are key allies in heavy rain, especially for low-lying areas like river
plains.
• They help the ground absorb more of a flash flood, reducing soil loss and property
damage by slowing the flow
• Large forests can influence regional weather patterns and even create their own
microclimates.

12. • Forest can block wind. They serve as a wind break, providing a buffer for wind-
sensitive crops.
• By growing a canopy to hog sunlight, trees also create vital oases of shade on
the ground.
• Forest provide a wealth of natural medicines.
• Asthma drug theophylline comes from cacao trees.
• Another important contribution of forest to nature is nutrient cycling.
• Nutrient cycling refers to the pathway of various nutrient minerals or elements
from environment through organisms and back to environment.

13. How do tropical forest affect climate and global change?
Forest as carbon “sinks”.
❑ability to store more carbon than they release back to
atmosphere through photosynthesis.
Storage of carbon by forests slows the rate of CO2
accumulating in atmosphere (greenhouse gases).
▪ Trees in the forest use the CO2 in the atmosphere for
photosynthesis
Greenhouse gases like carbon basically trapped the heat
and keep the Earth warm but excessive amount of
greenhouse gases has some consequences
We initially need to know that tropical forest is the bank of
25% world carbon. Tropical forest store more carbon per
unit area than any other type of ecosystem.

14. ❑ The diagram above depicted different world biomes carbon storage.
❑ The dark green shaded region displayed tropical and subtropical forest and
according to the chart, they are the biomes with the highest carbon storage with
600 billion of tonnes carbon stored.

15. • If all trees in the tropics were cut down, global temperature would increase by
0.7 degrees:
• - due to excessive accumulation of greenhouse gases
• Rise in global temperature leads to melting of ice in pole, rise in sea level,
sinking of coastal areas.
Forest carbon cycle
Pools:
▪ foliage, stems, branch, roots, litter, soil
Processes:
▪ Photosynthesis, respiration, carbon allocation, decomposition
Rainforest also cool the air above them through conversion of water from the soil
into moisture in the air and transpiration by the trees.

16.  Diminish of tropical forest through deforestation alter the rainfall on the other side of the world:
❑ Trees gone > air warms up > large rising masses of warm air created > rises and hit the upper
reaches of the atmosphere > create ripples (teleconnections) > flow towards the mid- and higher
latitudes.
❑ Changes of atmosphere in the tropics can flow out to the atmosphere of other regions and alter
their climate such as change in rainfall.
 Increase and decrease in rainfall in the other side of the world from what are supposed to causes change in crop
productivity, alter world food supply and change the global economic.

17. Global impact of tropical deforestation on rainfall.
• The boxes in the models are the area forest was removed.
• Projected increases (circles) and decreases (triangles) in rainfall due to complete deforestation of either the
Amazon (red), central Africa (yellow) or southeast Asia (blue).
• Numbers show the study the results relate to. [ Source: Lawrence & Vandecar (2014) ]

18. What is climate change?
-what is climate?-
Climate
Definition
Influenced
by
-the oceans,
-land surfaces
-ice sheets – together
with the atmosphere
form what is called the
‘climate system’.
Weather in some
location averaged over
some long period of
time, often 30 years.
Differ from weather in term of
period

19. This is called the ‘greenhouse effect’
-greenhouse gases in smaller quantities -
impede the outward flow of infrared
energy from Earth to space.
Climate change occur when more and more
infrared energy are trapped in atmosphere
–also called global warming.
Solar energy absorbed by Earth is returned to space as infrared (heat) radiation.
Affect the whole climate system The flows of radiation in the atmosphere -
determining climate.
The solar energy emitted from the Sun is partly reflected directly back to space by atmosphere
Aerosol layer increase the reflection of sunlight
Climate change
Remaining solar energy passes through the
aerosol layer into our atmosphere.

21. Impact Of Climate Change On Tropical Forests
• Tropical forests contain about 25% of the world’s carbon and the other world forest region add 20% of
carbon.
• Changes in climate change happen due to the rising in Earth’s temperature, the greenhouse effect
causes the atmosphere to retain heat,changes in sun’s energy and changes in reflectivity.
• The changing climate impacts society and ecosystem in a broad variety of ways.
• Some of the effect is on our tropical forests even a small changes in tropics can have huge
consequences for the entire earth system.
• As we know tropical forest play a major role in carbon cycle as they act like carbon “sink”.
• The ability of tropical forest to store more carbon and they release back to atmosphere by the
photosynthesis process are very important to the ecosystem.

22. A major new international project
focuses on the potential impacts of
climate change on tropical forests
such as this one in Caxiuanã, Brazil.
(Photo by Hugo Glendinning.)
• The impact is vary in every forest
• In the Sub-artic boreal forest are the very badly affected
by the climate change.
• The result of the climate change in that area with the
tree lines gradually retreating north as the temperatures
rise.
• Impact on climate change expected to be the wide-ranging
on effects for tropical rainforests
• Such as changes in weather pattern, temperature and
rainfall distribution.
• Changing in temperature will results in transformation of
rainforest into drier forest in some areas.
• All the living thing that lives in forest also will affected such
as animals and lead to the extinction.

24. How do climate change affect tropical forest?
- Global climate change initiated by global warming is
expected to have wide-ranging effects for tropical
forests
- Melting of ice at pole causes sea levels rise so large
tracts of coastal lowland rainforest and enormous
areas of mangrove forest will be affected.
- There will be changes to tropical forest due to
unfavourable condition caused by climate change:
-Animals do not breed
-Fruit-producing plants do not fruits
-Flower-producing plants do not produce flowers
- Ecological communities will need to migrate, an effort
that will be more difficult because of habitat
alteration. Some may even die and extinct.
Climate change generally detrimental towards
Earth

25. • The above diagram depicted tropical regions in the red, yellow and orange regions with the
highest potential vulnerability to climate change.
• They are the most sensitive with any small changes in climatic change.
• Alteration of climatic conditions are very unfavourable to tropical forest.